U.S. Businesses Overseas Threatened by Rising Anti-Americanism
The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
One third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq (news - web sites), constituted their strongest impression of the United States.
Twenty percent of respondents in Europe and Canada said they consciously avoided buying U.S. products as a protest against those policies. That finding was consistent with a similar poll carried out by GMI three weeks after Bush's November election victory.
George Bush, like a bad sitcom, has been brought to you by these very corporate interests. And in the snakepit where the neocons, the Holy rollers and the corporate lobbying complex twist and turn, you know there has been a deal with the Devil, even if you can't quite decide which one is Beelzebub. Adam Smith's invisible hand brought them, and thus us, to this place -- a place where we are becoming an international pariah, the South Africa to the world. And when these countries and consumers wake up to their power and organize the kind of boycotts used so effectively against apartheid, perhaps they will achieve what we have not.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
One third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the "war on terror" and the occupation of Iraq (news - web sites), constituted their strongest impression of the United States.
Twenty percent of respondents in Europe and Canada said they consciously avoided buying U.S. products as a protest against those policies. That finding was consistent with a similar poll carried out by GMI three weeks after Bush's November election victory.
George Bush, like a bad sitcom, has been brought to you by these very corporate interests. And in the snakepit where the neocons, the Holy rollers and the corporate lobbying complex twist and turn, you know there has been a deal with the Devil, even if you can't quite decide which one is Beelzebub. Adam Smith's invisible hand brought them, and thus us, to this place -- a place where we are becoming an international pariah, the South Africa to the world. And when these countries and consumers wake up to their power and organize the kind of boycotts used so effectively against apartheid, perhaps they will achieve what we have not.
posted by bluememe at 12/30/2004
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